- Originally published: October 19, 2023
- Last updated: January 3, 2025
Whether you’re looking for the best desk booking software for your office or a hot desk reservation system for a coworking space, you’re spoilt for choice. There are more than 50 tools to consider, and it’s not necessarily a good thing when trying to pick just one.
Now, I might be a bit biased, but since our team at Archie has extensive experience with desk booking solutions, I’ve decided to tap into our insights and expertise to give you an objective overview of the best desk booking software options available.
💡 TL;DR
If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution that’s flexible, cost-effective, and easy to use, Archie is the top pick for desk booking (and more). For those needing more specialized features and are okay with paying a bit extra for a more complex setup, OfficeSpace is a great option, too. For budget-conscious companies, on the other hand, Deskbird offers a straightforward, no-frills solution. And if you want a desk sharing tool that “lives” within Slack or Microsoft Teams, go for Officely.
Guide to the best desk booking software
The importance of desk booking software
Desk booking software (also called a desk reservation system, desk sharing tool, shared desk software, hot desk app, or even desk hoteling software 🤯) makes it easy to reserve and manage desks, be it in advance or on demand, helping you make the best use of your office space. Your employees can clearly see which desks are available, pick a time and location, and make a reservation through an desk booking app.
Essentially, desk sharing tools tools often show real-time availability, prevent double bookings, and help you track how desks are being used. Provided that you invest in the best desk booking software, that is. As flexible work and hybrid offices become the norm, hot desk booking software is essential for today’s workplaces.
Key features to look for in desk booking software
Apart from multiple desk booking options (duh), the best desk booking software has a lot to offer:
- Recurring desk reservations: Your employees can book the same desks for regular office days, saving them from the hassle of booking desks daily.
- Visual floor plans: Interactive maps allow your team to choose desks and see the office layout, making the booking process smoother.
- Live availability: Desk booking systems often show real-time desk availability to prevent double bookings and confusion. Some platforms also let users filter desks and meeting rooms by available amenities.
- Employee lookup: The feature helps your staff find and book spaces near their colleagues, making collaboration easier on office days. Some systems can even send notifications when teammates are in the office.
- Data insights: Most office hotelling solutions track desk usage, peak times, and trends that can help office managers forecast needs and optimize workspace planning.
- Seamless integrations: Typically, hot desking software integrates with various tools—it should work with your existing office tools, especially calendars and communication apps, to ease desk reservations for your team.
Pricing models offered by desk booking systems
Before you start comparing desk management software features, it’s essential to understand the differences between the two most common pricing models.
Some platforms charge per user, and others charge per resource—in this case, desks (or meeting rooms)—which can save money for larger companies with more employees than desks. Pay attention, though, as some of the basic pricing plans seem affordable but don’t include desk booking features.
No matter the exact pricing model, go for platforms with transparent pricing, no hidden fees, and the flexibility to grow with your business. But we’ll get to that later.
Here’s an exemplary pricing comparison for 100 desks and 200 employees, charged per month in US dollars:
💰Archie from $324 ($159 for 25 resources, like desks and meeting rooms, per month)
💰Officely from $500 ($2.50 per user per month, desk booking through Slack/Teams)
💰Kadence from $800 ($4 per active user per month)
💰Envoy from $1000 ($5 per active user per month when billed annually)
Best desk booking software compared
- Archie: Best desk booking software for scaling hybrid teams
- Envoy: Best for secure visitor & office management
- Robin: Best for resource booking with limited visitor management capabilities
- OfficeSpace: Best for resource booking on a higher budget
- Officely: Best for booking desks exclusively via team communication apps
- Skedda: Best for custom booking workflows.
- Deskbird: Best for affordable resource booking
- Kadence: Best for AI-assisted booking
- Eden: Best for onboarding hybrid employees
- Tactic. Best for managing hybrid team schedules
Archie
Archie is an all-in-one workspace management platform designed to simplify desk booking, room reservations, and visitor management, which makes it perfect for hybrid work setups. What sets Archie apart is its cost-effectiveness—it charges per resource instead of per user, which is great for companies with fluctuating in-office attendance. Plus, its user-friendly and highly customizable interface makes it easy for teams to adopt.
🔑 Key features
- Desk and room booking: Archie makes booking desks and meeting rooms quick and easy, allowing teams to coordinate schedules and better use office space. You can also assign dedicated and permanent desks to employees who need them.
- Interactive floor plans: The platform includes interactive office maps for easy desk and room booking, making the process as simple as clicking a spot on the map.
- Mobile access: The mobile desk booking app lets your employees book desks, view floor plans, and manage reservations from their phones, giving them flexibility wherever they are. If needed, the app (that you can download for free from an App Store & Google Play) can be fully branded for an extra charge.
- Neighborhood zoning: Archie supports ‘neighborhoods’—dedicated office zones that group teams together, boosting collaboration while maintaining flexibility.
- Employee lookup: Archie helps your team find out where their coworkers are sitting or if they’re at work that day.
- Employee check-ins: Depending on your hybrid work policy, employees can check in via the app, scan a QR code, or use physical check-ins.
- Workspace analytics: Archie offers detailed reports on how desks and rooms are used, helping you optimize layouts and reduce wasted space.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ User experience: Archie offers a great user experience, making it easy to navigate for new users. The interface is simple, and the learning curve is minimal, which helps users get started quickly. One of the standout features of Archie is its customer service, which is available 24/7 and is known for being quick and helpful. This has earned Archie high ratings on review sites like G2, where it’s considered one of the best desk booking software solutions.
➕ Cost-effectiveness: In terms of cost, Archie is quite affordable, especially for growing hybrid teams. Unlike other software that charges based on the number of users, Archie’s pricing plans are based on the number of resources (like desks and meeting rooms). This makes it a great option for teams that need flexibility as they grow, without breaking the budget.
➖Not the best choice for smaller offices and teams: However, Archie may not be the best fit for smaller offices and teams. The Starter plan is designed for larger, hybrid teams with more users than desks and includes just one location and 25 active resources. While this setup works well for growing teams, it might not be ideal for smaller offices. Additionally, the more resources and users you add, the better the pricing, which isn’t always the case with some other desk sharing tools.
💳 Pricing
The Starter plan for $159/month includes 1 location, 25 active resources, Mobile & Rooms apps, in-app chat support, and complete setup assistance to get your workspace up and running fast. The visitor management module is charged separately. A free trial is available.
Envoy
Envoy is a strong desk management software that simplifies office tasks, focusing on security, efficiency, and flexibility. It’s perfect for companies wanting to improve hybrid work setups while ensuring workplace safety remains a top priority.
🔑 Key features
- Desk and room booking: Your employees can easily reserve desks and meeting rooms on the go, ensuring they have a spot when needed.
- Delivery management: Envoy helps track incoming deliveries by notifying employees when packages arrive and keeping records to prevent lost items.
- Workplace safety and compliance: The platform includes features for visitor screenings, managing capacity limits, and responding to emergencies.
- Analytics and reporting: Envoy provides clear insights into how office spaces are used, helping you make smarter decisions about layouts and resources.
- Integrated workplace experience: Envoy’s desk booking system integrates with tools like Slack, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ Office security features: Envoy prioritizes office security with features like touchless check-ins and visitor screenings, ensuring a safer and more seamless experience for both employees and visitors. These safety features are particularly useful in maintaining a secure office environment.
➕ Comprehensive analytics: Another benefit of Envoy is its comprehensive analytics. The platform provides valuable insights into office space usage and resource management, helping companies make informed decisions to optimize their workspace and improve overall efficiency.
➖ Per-user pricing model: However, a downside of Envoy is its per-user pricing model. This can become costly for larger organizations, especially if office attendance fluctuates, making it less ideal for companies with a high number of users or varying office presence.
💳 Pricing
The standard desk booking plan starts at $5 per active user/month when billed annually. Visitor management is billed separately.
Robin
Robin is a workplace management platform that helps manage office tasks like booking desks and meeting rooms. It’s easy to use, especially for companies balancing in-office and remote work. Users appreciate its real-time updates and easy integration with existing tools, making it simple to reserve desks and rooms.
🔑 Key features
- Assigned desk sharing: You can assign one desk to multiple employees based on their schedules, which helps you optimize space usage.
- AI-assisted desk booking: Robin uses past booking data and employee preferences to automatically pick and reserve the best desk for your team members.
- Interactive office maps: Robin provides real-time, interactive maps of the office layout so your employees can easily find available desks.
- Employee check-ins: Your team can choose from various check-in options, including QR codes, access control integrations, and automatic WiFi check-in.
- Advanced analytics: Robin provides insights into how your office space is used, helping you identify peak usage times and improve layouts to match employee needs.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ Focus on room & desk booking: Robin is a great option for companies focused on desk and room booking. It’s specifically designed to manage hot-desking and hybrid workspaces, making it an ideal choice for organizations that need to optimize their office space for flexibility and employee collaboration.
➕ Real-time presence & wayfinding: One of its standout features is the real-time presence and wayfinding tools. With interactive maps and presence indicators, employees can easily locate available desks and find colleagues, which helps encourage spontaneous collaboration and makes the office experience more dynamic.
➖ Per-user pricing model: However, a downside is Robin’s per-user pricing model. While this can work well for smaller teams, it can become quite expensive as your team grows, making it less cost-effective for larger organizations.
💳 Pricing
Robin’s pricing starts at around $70 per user. It’s best to contact Robin directly for the most accurate pricing, as they don’t disclose full pricing details on their website. A 14-day free trial is available to test out the platform.
OfficeSpace
OfficeSpace is a hybrid workspace management platform known for its strong set of features, especially for desk and room booking. It offers plenty of tools for organizing office layouts and managing reservations. However, it’s more suitable for companies willing to pay for premium features since it tends to be expensive.
🔑 Key features
- Desk booking: Tactic allows your employees to easily reserve desks, which is especially useful for hot desking setups.
- Desk zones: Use Tactic to easily organize hot desks by floors or designated areas to allocate desks for different departments or teams.
- Seating assignments: You can assign specific desks to employees, either permanently or temporarily, to accommodate individual needs or preferences.
- Future booking limit: Control how far desks can be booked in advance to ensure fair access for all your employees.
- Meeting room reservations: Let your employees effortlessly book meeting rooms to ensure teams have the spaces they need for collaboration without scheduling conflicts.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ User-friendly interface: Tactic is known for its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for employees to book desks and meeting rooms without any hassle. Managers also benefit from the system as it allows them to efficiently monitor space usage, helping to optimize office resources.
➕ Flexible space management: One of the strengths of Tactic is its flexible space management features. It includes smart tools like automated desk assignments and the ability to set custom booking rules, which makes it adaptable to various workplace setups and helps meet the unique needs of different teams.
➖ Technical issues: However, there are some technical issues that users have reported. While the design is generally intuitive, some have experienced difficulties when trying to log into the app, particularly the first time they use it. This can be a frustrating experience for new users trying to get started.
💳 Pricing
Tactic’s pricing starts at $149 per month for desk booking, which includes up to 50 active users. If you have more users, it costs an extra $50 per month for every additional 50 users. Additional features like room scheduling and visitor management are billed separately.
Officely
Officely is an easy-to-use desk booking tool that works directly within popular communication platforms—Slack and Microsoft Teams. By embedding its features into these tools, Officely makes it simple for employees to book desks, meeting rooms, and other office resources without leaving the apps they already use.
🔑 Key features
- Desk and room booking: Your employees can easily book desks, meeting rooms, and resources directly from Slack or Teams.
- Comprehensive resource management: Officely also supports booking parking spaces, bike racks, and pet-friendly spots.
- Office visibility: The desk sharing app provides real-time insights into who will be in the office on a given day.
- Announcements and social planning: Officely makes organizing office events, lunches, and team gatherings easy.
- Space utilization analytics: You can get more insights into attendance and space usage to help you optimize office layouts.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ Seamless integration with communication apps: Officely offers seamless integration with communication apps like Slack and Teams, which reduces the need for additional software and helps streamline desk bookings and other tasks within platforms your team is already using.
➕ User-friendly interface: The user-friendly interface is another major plus. The platform is intuitive and easy to navigate, allowing employees to quickly make desk bookings and access other features without any hassle.
➖ Dependency on Slack/Teams: However, a downside of Officely is its dependency on Slack or Teams. If your organization doesn’t primarily use these tools, you might find Officely’s capabilities limited, as it is designed to work most effectively within those platforms.
💳 Pricing
Desk booking starts at $2.50 per user per month. It’s free for up to 10 users, with a free trial available.
Skedda
Skedda is an easy-to-use desk booking & space management platform. It’s packed with features like interactive floor plans, custom desk reservation rules, and seamless integrations, making it perfect for hybrid offices, coworking spaces, and venues that need a straightforward but powerful tool to optimize space usage.
🔑 Key features
- Desk booking system: Skedda offers a drag-and-drop interface for booking desks and meeting rooms, with real-time availability to avoid double bookings.
- Interactive floor plans: You can create custom, interactive maps to give your team a visual overview of your workspace.
- Custom booking rules: Use Skedda to set specific booking rules like time limits, cancellation policies, and user permissions to control how your office spaces are used.
- Neighborhoods: Group your office into designated areas so teams can sit together whenever they want to.
- Integration capabilities: Skedda integrates smoothly with popular tools like Slack, Kisi, ServiceNow, and Google Workspace, among others.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ Ease of use: Skedda is known for its ease of use, with a simple interface that makes it easy for anyone to book and manage spaces without needing much training. This makes it a great choice for teams that want a straightforward solution without a steep learning curve.
➕ Customizable rules: One of its key strengths is the ability to set customizable booking rules. This helps ensure that spaces are used efficiently and in line with company guidelines, giving managers control over how spaces are booked and used.
➖ Limited analytics: However, a downside of Skedda is its limited analytics. While it offers basic reports, it may not provide the in-depth insights that some other competitors offer. This could be a drawback for businesses that need more detailed data to help with decision-making and space optimization.
💳 Pricing
Pricing starts at $99/month for a basic feature set, priced per space (15 spaces included). A free trial is available.
Deskbird
Deskbird is a straightforward desk and meeting room booking platform that focuses on ease of use. It’s perfect for companies that want a simple, no-frills solution for reserving office spaces without the complexity of more advanced systems.
🔑 Key features
- Simple desk booking: Your employees can quickly reserve desks via the mobile app, web interface, or Microsoft Teams.
- Comprehensive resource management: Deskbird also supports booking meeting rooms, parking spots, and other resources, giving you complete control over your office assets.
- Interactive floor plans: The desk booking app provides interactive office maps, helping users quickly find available spaces and book their preferred workstations.
- Social feed: Deskbird shows when colleagues plan to be in the office, making it easier for your employees to coordinate team schedules.
- Mobile access: The mobile hot desk app allows your team to book desks (and rooms) on the go.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ User-friendly interface: Deskbird is easy to adopt and use, thanks to its user-friendly interface. The platform requires minimal training, making it a great option for teams that need a simple, no-fuss solution.
➕ Straightforward desk and room booking: Its main strength lies in its straightforward desk and room booking features, which are offered at a low price. This makes it a good choice for businesses that only need the basics and don’t require any additional features or complexity.
➖ Limited features and integrations: Its main strength lies in its straightforward desk and room booking features, which are offered at a low price. This makes it a good choice for businesses that only need the basics and don’t require any additional features or complexity.
💳 Pricing
Starts at around $2 per user per month for the Basic plan. A free trial is available.
Kadence
Kadence is an easy-to-use booking tool that helps teams reserve desks and meeting rooms, making it more straightforward for hybrid teams to manage their work in the office. It has practical features for managing space, which boosts productivity and cuts down on real estate expenses. Users like how straightforward the interface is and appreciate the quality of customer support provided by Kadence.
🔑 Key features
- Intelligent desk management: Your team can quickly reserve desks to have a dedicated workspace when needed.
- Interactive floor plans: Kadence lets you visualize your workspace with color-coded maps indicating popular areas.
- Kadence AI: Your employees can easily book multiple desks and manage their reservations with smart suggestions and relevant alerts when teammates change their plans.
- Smart notifications: Kadence sends notifications when teammates cancel bookings or when preferred desks are available.
- Mobile desk booking app: Your team members can book desks on the go, whether in the office or working remotely.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ User-friendly interface: Kadence is known for its user-friendly interface, focusing on simplicity to make it easy for employees to book desks and other resources with minimal training. This makes it a great option for teams looking for a straightforward solution.
➕ Helpful and responsive support: Another positive feature is its helpful and responsive support team. Many users haved praised the attentive support they’ve received, and the implementation process is generally smooth.
➖ Limited customization: However, a downside of Kadence is its limited customization options. While it covers the basics well, it may not offer the same level of customization as some other competitors, which could be a drawback if your organization has specific workflow requirements or needs more tailored features.
💳 Pricing
Starts at $4 per active user per month. Custom pricing is available for enterprise plans.
Eden
Eden gives you a full range of tools to manage the office. It makes it easier to bring on new employees with the ticketing software, allows workers to do a wellness check, book a desk, and check in without touching anything before they even get to the office.
🔑 Key features
- Desk booking: Eden’s hot desk reservation system lets your employees easily reserve a desk for the day from anywhere. It also helps you manage desk hoteling, assign specific areas and seats, and track occupancy rates.
- Room scheduling: Your team can reserve conference rooms, check in and out of meetings, and sync everything with Google Calendar and Slack.
- Visitor management: Eden offers tools to efficiently track and manage visitors, ensuring a smooth and professional experience.
- Internal ticketing: The platform includes built-in tools for submitting service requests, whether it’s for IT support, maintenance, or other needs.
- Third-party integrations: Among other tools, Eden integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Calendar, and supports SSO and directory syncing to keep your hybrid office organized and efficient.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ All-in-one platform: Eden is an all-in-one platform that offers a comprehensive solution for managing modern workplaces. It covers everything from desk booking to facilities management, making it a great choice for organizations looking for a complete system to streamline their operations.
➕ Scalable pricing: One of the advantages of Eden is its scalable pricing. With multiple pricing tiers, it’s flexible enough to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes, whether you’re a small startup or a larger enterprise.
➖ Limited customization: However, one downside is that Eden offers limited customization. While the platform is versatile and can handle a variety of tasks, some users may find it lacking when it comes to deeper customization options for more specific workflows. This could be a drawback for businesses that require a highly tailored system.
💳 Pricing
The desk booking plan starts at $2.25 per desk per month when billed annually and is sold in sets of 25 desks. Room scheduling is charged separately ($15 per room per month).
Tactic
Tactic makes booking desks and meeting rooms easy for hybrid teams, whether they’re working from home or in the office. It connects smoothly with popular tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, and its user-friendly design makes it a great option for businesses adjusting to hybrid work setups.
🔑 Key features
- Desk booking: Tactic allows your employees to easily reserve desks, which is especially useful for hot desking setups.
- Desk zones: Use Tactic to easily organize hot desks by floors or designated areas to allocate desks for different departments or teams.
- Seating assignments: You can assign specific desks to employees, either permanently or temporarily, to accommodate individual needs or preferences.
- Future booking limit: Control how far desks can be booked in advance to ensure fair access for all your employees.
- Meeting room reservations: Let your employees effortlessly book meeting rooms to ensure teams have the spaces they need for collaboration without scheduling conflicts.
🔎 Pros & cons
➕ User-friendly interface: Tactic is known for its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for employees to book desks and meeting rooms without any hassle. Managers also benefit from the system as it allows them to efficiently monitor space usage, helping to optimize office resources.
➕ Flexible space management: One of the strengths of Tactic is its flexible space management features. It includes smart tools like automated desk assignments and the ability to set custom booking rules, which makes it adaptable to various workplace setups and helps meet the unique needs of different teams.
➖ Technical issues: However, there are some technical issues that users have reported. While the design is generally intuitive, some have experienced difficulties when trying to log into the app, particularly the first time they use it. This can be a frustrating experience for new users trying to get started.
💳 Pricing
Plans begin at $3 per desk per month. Additional features like room scheduling and visitor management are billed separately.
51 desk sharing tools listed
Still looking for desk sharing tools? This list will give you a complete overview of the desk booking options for your team:
- Archie: Best desk booking software that combines desk and meeting room booking, visitor management, and workspace analytics.
- Envoy: Desk booking, visitor management, health and safety compliance, and workplace insights in one place.
- Robin: Focuses on desk and meeting room scheduling, with tools for managing office resources and analyzing space utilization.
- OfficeSpace: Comprehensive space management, including hot desk booking, room scheduling, and real-time analytics.
- Officely: Slack/Teams-integrated tool for desk management and hybrid work coordination.
- Skedda: Features interactive floor plans, online booking, and customizable booking rules.
- Deskbird: Simplifies desk and room reservations, focusing on user experience and mobile accessibility.
- Kadence: Provides desk and room booking, team coordination, and AI-assisted space management features.
- Eden: Combines hot desk booking software with visitor management, internal ticketing, and office safety features.
- Tactic: Hybrid workplace management with desk and room booking, team coordination, and office insights.
- Smartway2: Intelligent room & desk scheduling software with analytics and integration capabilities.
- UnSpot: All-in-one hybrid office desk reservation system with space analytics.
- Clearooms: A user-friendly hot desk management software suitable for flexible workspaces.
- Tribeloo: Facilitates collaboration in hybrid workplaces with hot desking software solutions.
- Othership: Optimizes office desk reservation and collaboration through a desk booking platform for hybrid teams.
- Hybo: Workspace and desk reservation software for hybrid work models.
- Matrix Booking: Hot desk software with mobile and web apps and interactive floor plans.
- YAROOMS: Comprehensive desk and room booking, digital signage, and visitor management.
- FMS:Workplace: Combines hybrid work software and hardware solutions for integrated scheduling and workspace optimization.
- WorkInSync: SaaS platform for hybrid workplaces with desk booking and meeting room management.
- Nibol: Connects hybrid workspaces with desk and meeting room booking and coworking space reservations.
- Wisp—Gensler’s Space Management System: Space management with desk reservations, wayfinding, move management, and analytics.
- Quantum AI Workspace Manager: Optimises workspace use, including desk allocation and reservations.
- Whatspot: Easy-to-use booking system for desks, rooms, and parking.
- Proxyclick: Focused on visitor management with desk booking capabilities.
- SwipedOn: Mobile-friendly desk booking for hybrid workspaces.
- Eptura: Comprehensive desk booking and space management with robust analytics.
- OfficeRnD: Tailored for coworking spaces with desk booking and member management tools.
- Condeco: Desk booking system by Eptura.
- Zynq: Hybrid work scheduling with desk and room booking for better collaboration.
- AgilQuest: Solutions for desk booking, meeting room reservations, and usage analytics.
- Meetio: Specializes in room booking and desk management with calendar integrations.
- GoBright: Full-featured desk, room, and visitor management with workspace efficiency tools.
- MyDesk: Simple desk booking solution for managing hybrid schedules.
- Zapfloor: Tools for desk booking, contract management, and billing for coworking spaces.
- Nexudus: Coworking space management with desk booking, community engagement, and billing.
- Spacewell: Office space optimization with desk booking and IoT integration.
- Spaceti: Workplace digitalization with desk booking, occupancy monitoring, and navigation.
- Dibsido: Hot desk app and office management tools.
- Deskfound: A hassle-free desk booking solution available via Slack.
- Flydesk: Hybrid workplace management software.
- Ronspot: A desk booking system for the hybrid workplace.
- Cloudbooking: A flexible desk booking system for hybrid workplaces.
- Hybridhero: HR & workplace management software.
- Poppulo: A mobile workplace app with desk booking features.
- Joan: A comprehensive workplace management system for managing desks, rooms, assets, and visitors.
- Mapiq: A workplace experience platform to manage office spaces.
- Tidaro: A workplace management system that helps to manage hybrid work setup via desk booking.
- PULT: An all-in software for the modern workplace.
- Desk.ly: A desk booking system that integrates seamlessly into existing office tools.
- Seatti: Desk management software built for hybrid teams.
Now, for the fun part—choosing your desk management software.
How to choose the right office hoteling software
1. Understand your requirements
- Broad functionality: As you can already tell, many platforms go beyond simple desk booking, offering additional features like meeting room scheduling, visitor management, and analytics for space usage. For example, solutions like Archie and OfficeSpace provide a comprehensive set of tools to help manage every aspect of your workspace efficiently.
- Module flexibility: Make sure the platform you choose allows you to select specific modules according to your needs. Some platforms come with bundled packages, while others let you pick only the features you need, ensuring you only pay for what you use.
2. Take user experience into account
- Smooth user journey: The software must be easy to use to encourage employee adoption. Tools like Archie and Robin are known for providing a smooth and reliable experience.
- Support and training: Pay attention to how responsive and helpful customer support teams are. Check if the shared desk software provider offers training resources and quality support, like Archie or Kadence do.
- Integration flexibility: Look for platforms that integrate seamlessly with your existing tools. Think calendars, HR systems, and team communication platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- User reviews: Check honest user reviews to get insights into the desk booking software’s usability, reliability, and efficiency. When in doubt, look at popular review sites like G2 and Capterra.
3. Check pricing plans thoroughly
- Per user vs. resource: Pricing structures vary widely across desk booking software. Many traditional platforms charge based on the number of users, which can become costly as your team grows. In contrast, newer solutions like Archie adopt a per-resource pricing model. For example, if your organization has 100 employees using 50 desks, you only pay for the desks.
- Transparent costs: Transparency in pricing is essential when budgeting for software. Some platforms may include implementation fees or mandatory add-ons. Platforms like OfficeSpace charge for implementation, while others offer a lower entry price. However, a lower starting price doesn’t always mean better value. It’s crucial to assess what features and support you’re getting.
- Customizable pricing plans: Only some organizations need all the features from the start. Many desk sharing tools offer flexible packages, allowing you to choose the tools that match your current needs. This means you’re not overpaying for features you don’t need yet but can easily scale up as your business grows.
Considering both short-term and long-term costs is vital when picking a desk booking solution. As your business grows, so will your requirements. Desk hoteling software that charges per resource is designed with scalability in mind, offering customizable features that adapt to the evolving needs of growing hybrid teams.
Do your research and make sure you understand your organization’s current needs and what you might need in the future. This way, you can choose a solution that offers good value for money and will grow with your business.
And once you’re at it, you might want to give Archie a try.
Best hot desk booking software FAQ
The only difference between hot desking and hoteling is when the desk space is reserved. Technically, the hot desk reservation system indicates booking on a first-come, first-served basis, letting users grab a workspace in real time when they get to the office. On the other hand, desk hoteling software is meant to book a space in advance. Still, most software solutions on the market have similar features and offer both hoteling and hot desking, regardless of the exact names used.
Desk booking software typically works through a web or mobile app where users can see available desks and resources in real time. They choose a date, time, and specific location and then book the available space. Plus, managers or administrators can often book desks on behalf of their team members. The system updates availability instantly to prevent double bookings and usually syncs with organizational calendars to keep everyone’s schedules in line.
Various organizations use desk booking software, including corporations with flexible or hybrid work policies, coworking spaces, and educational institutions. Facilities managers, HR teams, and individual employees use it to optimize space, reduce costs, support flexible working, and improve employee satisfaction.
There isn’t a single answer to which desk booking app is best, as the right choice depends on your specific needs and office setup. If you’re after an all-in-one solution that’s flexible, affordable, and simple to use, Archie is a top choice for desk booking. If you’re willing to pay extra for a more complex setup, OfficeSpace is a solid option. However, if your company is on a budget, Deskbird provides a straightforward desk booking system. And if you’re looking for a tool that integrates directly into Slack or Microsoft Teams, then Officely is the way to go.
Once you’ve selected the best desk booking software for your needs, the next step is to set it up to fit your organization’s needs. This might involve changing some settings or customizing features to ensure it works how you want it to. At this stage, you’ll also have to integrate the desk booking app with any existing systems you already use, like Slack and Google Calendar. Then, it’s time to train your team to book desks and other office resources, which should be easy enough. Keep in mind that some software platforms might charge extra fees for the initial setup, though.
Berenika Teter
Archie's Content Manager, fueled by filter coffee and a love for remote work. When she’s not writing about coworking spaces and hybrid workplaces, you can probably find her exploring one.
